Seafire vs. A6M Zero: Pacific Theatre

Osprey Duel #16

by Donald Nijboer, Jim Laurier (Illustrator)

Products of vastly different design philosophies, the Seafire F III and the A6M Zero were never intended to meet in combat, and never should have. Yet the harsh necessities of war intervened and these two planes were pitted against each other in the last dogfight of World War II, high above the Japanese home lands. The Zero, with its clean design, low weight and high lift, was extremely nimble at low speeds and ideally suited to the job it was intended to do. In contrast, the Spitfire was not designed as a shipboard fighter; it was a short-range interceptor, intended for operations from established airfields and supported by a well stocked infrastructure of spares and qualified maintenance personal. With a different twist on the Duel concept, this book examines these two iconic fighters and their two very different histories; one was 'adapted' for a role it was never intended to carry out, the other was purpose built and proved to be one of the finest fighters of World War II. Using fantastic artwork and intimate first-hand accounts, the author discusses the decline of the Japanese Naval Air Force and its principal fighter, the Zero, in contrast to the British Seafire, as it overcame its critics to become the best pure carrier interceptor of the war and emerge victorious in the last aerial duel of World War II.

Genres: Japan, Military History, History, World War II

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 21, 2009

About the author

Donald Nijboer is a freelance writer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He teaches courses in radio and broadcasting at Humber College of Technology and Advanced Learning.

His books have been published by the Boston Mills Press and Osprey Publishing.

He has also written articles for Flight Journal, Aviation History and Aeroplane Monthly.

Reviews

[Marcus · Rating 2 out of 5]

In several of my previous reviews of booklets in Duel series from Osprey Publishing I've questioned the purpose of the comparison between weapon systems poised against each other. In case of this volume, the same question must be asked, perhaps with even more emphasis than on previous occasions.


You will certainly not find the reason in this booklet, if you ask me. Indeed, if anything, the author provides all the reasons for my skepticism with his own work. Seafire was a stop-gap temporary measure which continued to be used simply because there was nothing better to replace it with, Zero was a purpose-built as aircraft carrier-based fighter. Seafire-was upgraded and technologically up to date, while Zero was an old, almost obsolete design by the time they encountered each other in combat. The engagement between the two airplanes took place on few occasions during last three months of war in the Pacific. Finally, at the time they did meet, Zero’s main task was to act as coffin for barely trained kamikaze pilots.


So… once again, unless the purpose of this volume is to illustrate that strange things happen in desperate times, why spend quite a lot of effort on an analysis which doesn’t make much sense and frankly is only marginally interesting?


Other than that, this volume holds usual high Osprey standard. Even if the textual content isn’t very exciting, the graphical material and beautiful color plates will most certainly be appreciated as reference material for history buffs and modelers.